What is this debate that makes a change. The great debate about money is made about the fact that is money a means of leaving or it is an aim in life. The idea that we have about money, the importance it has to us determines the ways we allow ourselves to gain money and to spend it. So to say, in order to get the right use of it in the right moment, one must definitely have the right grasp of the concept of money. In order to have an as accurate view of money as possible, first let us have a look at the dictionary definition of the word money. According the Compact Oxford English Dictionary money has to different meanings related to our discussion. First – “a medium of exchange in the form of coins and banknotes” and second – “wealth”.1) It seems the Oxford dictionary definition matches perfectly to the flow of the topic. The two general views towards money are the spiritual and the materialist one. Let us examine them both on detail.

The religious viewpoint of money takes hold of the idea that money is a means of leaving end can never go beyond that limit. According to this viewpoint, it is as much important to get the right gain of money as it is to get the right use if it. This means that you cannot be a philanthropist with the money you earn form drugs and other illegal activities, even though philanthropy is a admirable social contribution. One cannot pretend beneficence while the means of this beneficence is a criminal one, gained at the expense of another party. So, one should always keep in mind that earning money and spending it are to equally important in kind of life we lead, that one cannot ignore one and support the other, otherwise it is not part of this standpoint.

Another issue that needs discussion so far is the fact that the religious motion of money is also as something not deserving human sacrifice and pain. As Marian Wright Edelman has said: “Never work just for money or for power. They won’t save your soul or help you sleep at night”.2) This furthermore certifies that money will not give rest to the people who are keen just on it.

On the other hand, the materialistic viewpoint has another grasp of concept of money. This grasp matches with the second definition of the Oxford English dictionary, which defined money as “wealth”. There is nothing wrong with the word “wealth”, the problem matches with the concept of wealth in this context. The materialist view on money and wealth is such that it is the most important thing in life, as such that it is the source of felicity in life. This is what one can draw out of claims such as “get rich or die trying”, expressed one of the members of one of the means of massive propaganda, music. When one hears “get rich or die trying”, one concludes that that money, wealth, richness is the aim of life for this people, is the factor that gives meaning to life. In fact, this claim is as false as the fact that humans have no soul. I wander why Britney Spears would try to give a premature end to her life, even though she has everything she wants.

The most problematic part of the materialist ideology is the fact that they believe in the dogma that “the aim justifies the means”. What does this mean? This means that if their aim is to get rich, this aim justifies every possible way and path taken to reach it. This is why we see more a more criminal behaviors everyday, this is why no one cares for the fact that another one is suffering because of his or her unscrupulous aim – the aim of getting rich.

All what was previously said does not mean that money is something that we should not work for and possess. No! Best about this has spoken Mohandas Gandhi when he tells us that “Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed”.2) This is the best definition of money we can get. Money will always be a means for regulating and improving people’s lives, sometimes it is crucial for continuing living, but it is never the right thing to be an aim in life. One who believes money as his or her aim in life, if they do not reach this aim, they will die desperate, and if they will reach it they will die desperate too. Money did not give them what they expected.

1) http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/money?view=uk
2) http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_money.html
3) Ibid

We all dream a better world to life in; we all dream to have a better one, beginning from our own lives and so on. The idea of thinking globally is intriguing. Why not to think globally? Reasonable reason to begin with, but to think is not enough, you need even to act. This need comes naturally as the need to milk when you are born. So, in order that your thinking globally, to survive you need to feed it with acting.

Acting is actually easy. You do not have to be a revolutionary to justify your acting to defend your ideas and beliefs. You do not have to be a great leader to justify your acting. You do not have to be a harsh antiglobalist to justify your acting. You do not have to be many things to justify the fact that you are acting for the truth, at least what you hold to be the truth. What you can do is actually far more easy than what is told about (or what it has been until now). Shortly, blogging is acting. Yes, I’m serious; blogging is acting. Moreover, blogging is pretty much effective as a kind of acting in support of your beliefs. It can reach a great number of people all around the world; it can be global. Smiling, you can now say think globally and blog globally in stead of think globally and act locally.

At this point you give real meaning of your blogging. You act by writing your thoughts at your blog, by blogging what you consider right and worth shouting for. You do your best at this. And what is more important you do not forget the second point of ‘Valuable Intellectual Traits’ as a critical thinker.

Intellectual Courage: Having a consciousness of the need to face and fairly address ideas, beliefs or viewpoints toward which we have strong negative emotions and to which we have not given a serious hearing. This courage is connected with the recognition that ideas considered dangerous or absurd are sometimes rationally justified (in whole or in part) and that conclusions and beliefs inculcated in us are sometimes false or misleading. To determine for ourselves which is which, we must not passively and uncritically “accept” what we have “learned.” Intellectual courage comes into play here, because inevitably we will come to see some truth in some ideas considered dangerous and absurd, and distortion or falsity in some ideas strongly held in our social group. We need courage to be true to our own thinking in such circumstances. The penalties for non-conformity can be severe.

These is the way you can improve the world you live in; blogging the truth.

As the irreligionization of the modern world brought forth a wide range of philosophies and ideologies, none of them saw prison as an ineffective, let alone barbaric, punishment. In fact, the most important eminent and successful of these ideologies saw prison ineffective in the other way; it was not enough – capital punishment was the one. To mention, off course, would be Communism and Fascism along with their modified interpretations, whose results are still being suffered. As long as Capitalism is concerned, which brought nothing new to the world expect the merge of private ownership with secularity, is milder compared with its two big brothers but still does not ignore prison as punishment and in some parts still supports capital punishment. Even though the world has been reshaped transfigureingly differently of what it used to be, prison still endures change mechanisms.

To better understand the role of prison in human social living, it is necessary to have a look at the function of punishment in the same contest. Punishment, religiously speaking, has had and still holds three major functions: as a way of putting things right – namely justice, as a way of preserving human normal life flow – namely security, and as a way of educating healthy social behavior – namely education. Prison, as a branch of punishment tree, takes strong hold of these three composing aspects.

But, what is prison itself? In the theocratic states, especially Islamic ones, prison stands out as a punishment when there is no fixed punishment for a unsocial behavior. This makes prison acquire all the features of any other kind of punishment and fulfill its role in a different situation. In secular states, prison has, in the major cases, substituted religious rulings of the same criminal or unsocial contects. Therefore, not being ignored, prison has been found either effective or not yet has been found a proper subsistent to better fulfill its role.

As not yet has there been found an other way of fulfilling the rule of punishment in society, and it is most likely to never happen, prison will remain an effective and educative punishment as any other. The only thing to bear in mind is to apply it were necessary and proper and not on arbitrary bases.

There are two main approaches towards the solution of the problem of spiritual of physical torture which people everyday experience. The first is the solution of suicide and the second the solution of facing the problem. Every party of supporters has its own arguments in this issue and we will try to have a look at them.

The basic argument of the pro-premature death is that tremendous pain and suffering of person can be saved. Otherwise stated, when you suffer you should give an end to your life. This approach matches at some extent with our famous Doctor Adhamudhi’s view. Dr Adhamudhi stated that if you suffer from one leg, cut it off to save the other and if one of your eyes hurts, dig it out to save the other. But, surprisingly enough he did not accept the idea that when your if you have an headache, you should cut off your head to “save” your body. The question rises, what do the agreers of this attitude save when they chose to die? Better they would be described as cowards that are disable to face life and weak people who are disable to bear life and to find solutions of the tortures they suffer.

On the other hands, the are a other party that claims one should not suicide when under torture, of course I do not mean the masochists, that we should false the problems, sufferings and tortures we experience with bravery and find out solutions for them.
To begin with, I want to discuss an argument which is much provided when death penalty is concerned. It is the fact that God gave life to people and only God has the right to take it way form them. So, no one can be brave enough to pretend that if they want they can give an end to their life, claiming that it is their life and they do whatever they want with it. As a matter of fact, God when gives life to somebody, he prohibits everyone else to take it away from them, and even the person himself or herself.

Another topic of importance would be, as discussed at the beginning, that torture can be spiritual and physical. When somebody suffers spiritually is it right to suicide? Of course not! There are thousands of solutions, just a little try helps. Then why suicide when you could live a happy life after e depressing event in your life? As long as physical, when God created the illnesses, along with them created the cure of them all. This means that no one should think that no healing is possible for them and so let’s kindly stop for death as she could not stop for us. So, in both cases suicide is the wrong choice.

Life is difficult and miserable some time, but life is also beautiful and marvelous some time. So let’s push ourselves life the best lives we can rather than cut the chain of life in the middle and not live anymore. Do not forget that people cry when others die, not when others live. In fact, only the brave live the life.

In September 1999 I began my unforgettable high school life in Gjirokastra, said the stony city, in the south edge of Albania. I can remember quite well the parting day from my village. It was about six o’clock in the morning when my parents, Maksi, my classmate, his parents, and I came to the center of the village, which was the bus station, too. There were a lot of people there who made comments on us, which made us feel good and proud of ourselves because we were the two first pupils from our village to go to study in a high school in a town after about ten years of poor teaching in our school. The most interesting fact about this was that we were going to study in a boarding school, which made it a real curiosity-gnawing new experience.

After exchanging the traditional kisses with our mothers who didn’t save their last wishes and advices even then, we set out for Vlora accompanied by our two male parents and carrying some fully filled with clothes another accessories cases and bags which we thought would be necessary or useful in the dormitory.

When we arrived in Vlora, we stayed there for about half an hour waiting our parents to sip their coffees and then we set out again for Gjirokastra. About four hours later, we arrived there. Not knowing anything about the new town and the accommodation in the dorm that night we slept at a hotel named ” Argjiro” after the name of the heroin of the town that threw herself from the castle with her baby in her arms not to fall in the hands of the enemy, after whom the name of the town derives from too.

The next day in the morning, we went to school where I don’t remember what happened exactly, but we found our selves in the dorm at about noon. I can remember there was a great mass.

Finally, we managed to find a place in a room with four older boys and Mentor, our new classmate. Therefore, we were seven people in a 10m2 room, but we were lucky because most rooms were eight people each, which was the limit.

However, we didn’t get that well with the older boys so that after about two months they moved to another room and three other older boys and Fation, our classmate, came to our room. What related us expect this was the fact that he was from Vlora too and this kind of relation there was very evident. Students from different districts had their “dynasty”. We organized all the moving. None cared about anything there. There was a big anarchy.

So, we spent a beautiful year of difficulties together Maksi, Fation, Mentor and I. We were just children aged 14-15 and none to get support from expect ourselves. We learned to do things we had never done before, as washing clothes, tidying the room, arranging the bed, taking care of ourselves, which for me was something new because my sister had taken care of me until then. Our relationship grew stronger and stronger and it was then when I realized that difficulties bring people closer. However, the first year of high school passed very fast and unconsciously we found ourselves in the second year.

In the second year, there happened some changes. Fation rented a house with Odise, another friend of ours, and Klaidi, a boy from his own village, as they found it difficult to study in the dorm which was true. There was much noise and confusion. It’s what teenagers do when they get to full freedom.

Maksi and I got a room in the dormitory again but we didn’t stay long too, only the first two-month time, which served as a means to persuade our parents, who thought we couldn’t well-administrate our time and little money if we rent a house. Finally, we too rented a house with two other boys from the first year. They were from Vlora, too.

We had very good relations with Fation and his roommates and exchanged visits regularly until one day. I don’t remember exactly when, but I guess it was four months after the school had began that we argued.

It was time the Sun had just hidden its fiery self after the mountain leaving after it a red specter, which reflected on the clouds upon it and made the top of the mountain seem like a torch. Fation and his roommates had paid us a visit and they were just leaving. We were accompanying them to the gate of the house speaking to each other. I cannot remember exactly what about, but I do remember quite well that the circumstances made Maksi hit Klajdi. Fation criticized Maksi for that with a quite angry frown on his face. On the other hand, I found Fation’s reasoning unreasonable and criticized him for his criticism towards Maksi and we had a good hot argument (we only exchanged words). Then they left. This argument was the beginning of a three-month long non-speaking period between Fation and Klaidi to Maksi and me.

In Albania, usually when two or more people argue they don’t speak to each other as a sing of having no relationship and interest in the other, kind of underestimation. That was a really boring but regretful period. I was sorry for what had happened because I didn’t use to argue with my close friends.

It was February 4, 2001, my sixteen birthday when everything changed. It was nighttime. I had decided to celebrate my birthday so I had made some preparations. Beso, another close friend of ours and we were just about to celebrate when we heard someone knock on the door. I went and opened it and as I predicted, turned out to be Fation and his roommates. I felt something indescribable inside me at that moment. The adrenaline began to flow through my veins. I was high even though no sign of marihuana smoke could be found in my lungs. That was a perfect significant surprise. I invited them in, we exchanged kisses, and they gave me their wishes. In Albania, it’s normal to exchange kisses among boys as a sign of good friendship. Then we went all inside.

My friends gave me as a birthday-present a silver bracelet that was doubled with that one which Fation and his roommates brought me, too. The celebration began. That night we spent a great time.

I wore the bracelets for one year, and then I kept them in my wallet. One day I took them out of my wallet and left them in the dormitory and the same day my wallet was stolen but fortunately not the bracelets, which were in a safe place in the dorm.

The bracelets have a significant value for me because my best friends gave them to me and they symbolize the restart of the relations between best friends. Now they decorate my sister’s hands. She is a very special person to me too. She now is away from Albania, in Italy with her family to restart a new life there just as Fation and I restarted our relationship.